Category: Demilitarised

That Kate Bush Experiment IV video – a British Stranger Things c. 1986?

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** If you haven’t seen the Netflix retro 80s series Stranger Things this won’t make much sense **

Reading Alan’s Tradgardland blog this morning http://tradgardland.blogspot.com/2022/07/kate-bush.html#comment-form


I wondered whether Kate Bush’s music – most obviously in the track Hounds Of Love 1985 album (which featured her Running Up That Hill song used in Series IV volume 1 – had an unconscious influence on Stranger Things?

What about her Experiment IV song and her 1986 video (from her 1986 Greatest Hits album The Whole Story?)

Did this make it big enough Stateside for the Duffer brothers to have seen or heard this?

Every Reference? Experiment IV or Cloudbusting clearly wasn’t mentioned in this Wired channel Youtube interview with Stranger Things creators The Duffer brothers 🙂

I do not own copyright to these images – copyright Kate Bush- All screenshots for discussion / research purposes only.

A very 1981 Raiders of The Lost Ark ending angel or demon summoned by Experiment IV?

The good old Stranger Things nosebleed motif in Experiment IV ?

The unmarked white Government transit van …

Unlikely but Experiment IV and Stranger Things are both clearly the product of the nuclear 80s Cold War, as is her track and video for Cloudbusting.

Isn’t that device being pushed up the hill by Kate Bush and Professor Donald Sutherland a little like DustinHenderson’s amazing ham radio antenna in Stranger Things Series 3 Episode 1 “Suzie, do you copy?” and the Never Ending Story theme song duet (funny bit) of Series 3 Episode 8: Battle Of StarCourt Mall?

Cloudbusting video still: Donald Sutherland and Kate Bush

As I don’t have the tech skills to film and cut one Kate Bush video to the tune of another song (the Stranger Things soundtrack), instead you can get the effect by watching the official Kate Bush music video of Experiment IV or Cloud Busting with the sound down and the Stranger Things theme music playing from another device.

Richard Vernon, Dawn French, Hugh Laurie – in the British Experiment IV Hawkins Lab?

IMDB reference https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9207512/

Lyrics etc. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiment_IV

Insert cameos of famous 80s actors in both Stranger Things or Experiment IV and Cloudbusting. Light the blue touch paper and retire. Do not return …

Peter Vaughan cameo as General with Kate Bush

Somebody has already done 4 his in reverse, cut some Hawkins Lab Stranger Things series 4 scenes (Beware Spoilers! Beware fake blood and gore! etc.) to this Kate Bush music track of Experiment IV – https://youtu.be/NDhdaCFRfGc

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So when speculating as I have done recently why Stranger Things or The X Files couldn’t have been set in Britain or deepest darkest South West, or what its 70s 80s based British TV equivalent would be –

Grange Hill with Monsters meets the troubling and disturbing Rentaghost and Pipkins –

I can now add to this mix Kate Bush Experiment IV and Cloudbusting video along with the earth based Pertwee 1970s Doctor Who Series.

How this mistrust of government (mis)”guided by the science” and other pulp themes will influence my gaming, who knows?

My previous posts on gaming scenarios and Stranger Things:

https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/tag/stranger-things/

My previous post on The Two Ronnies and The Worm That Turned as an alternative VBCW gaming scenario:

https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2018/12/11/man-of-tin-advent-calendar-day-11-alternative-1979-vbcw-with-the-two-ronnies/

Blog posted by Mark Man Of TIN 31 July 2022

The Lost Snow Patrol Defrosted – early Girl Scouts versus Mutant Snowmen c. 1909 1910

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The Lost Snow Patrol Defrosted – early Girl Scouts versus Mutant Snowmen c. 1909 / 1910

The frozen North, 1909/1910 somewhere in Britain or Europe.

The mystery of a missing Boy Scout patrol. A Girl Scout patrol caught in a snow blizzard up in the hill forests. Lashings of hot chocolate, quarter staff fighting, fire arrows and some carrots …

Cross posted by Mark Man Of TIN (not Man of Snow) from my Scouting Wide Games for the Tabletop blog https://tabletopscoutingwidegames.wordpress.com/2022/07/30/the-lost-snow-patrol-defrosted-early-girl-scouts-versus-mutant-snowmen/

Further Uses of the Scout Staff

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Beyond quarter staff drill …

Boy Scouts Of America handbook first edition 1911

Crossposted from my Scouting Wide Games for the Tabletop blog

https://tabletopscoutingwidegames.wordpress.com/2022/07/23/further-uses-of-the-scout-staff/

Staff or Stave drill opens up some skirmish and melee possibilities for my Scouting figures with staffs, male and female:

https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2019/09/17/boy-scouts-camping-and-quarter-staves-again/

Khaki Lass – Be Prepared – early Girl Scout (Of America?) postcard

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Up early, dodging the heat, working on another Girl Scout Of America patrol for my Scouting Wide Games for the Tabletop Project.

This charming Khaki Lass says “Be Prepared” – keep safe in the heat.

Postcard image painted by Philip Boileau, c. 1910s.

Crossposted from my Scouting Wide Games – read more about this card and painter here:

https://tabletopscoutingwidegames.wordpress.com/2022/07/17/be-prepared-girl-scout-of-america-postcard

Blog posted by Mark Man Of TIN, 1970s British Boy Scout (Bronze Arrow, retired) on 17 July 2022.

Happy Fourth Of July to my tiny Americans

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Happy Fourth of July to American readers of my blog.

Happy Fourth Of July to my tiny Americans below!

Patriotic colours of red, white and blue of the WW1 Minute Girls, seen here (above) in my Camp Fire Girls USA from the 1910s and 1920s. Conversions from STS Little Britons LBB30 Boy Scout in this 42mm range.

https://tabletopscoutingwidegames.wordpress.com/2022/07/04/4th-of-july-camp-fire-girls-usa-and-the-minute-girls-of-ww1/

Early Girl Scouts (Of America) conversions from plastic soldier types.

Lincoln Logs wood cabin – Marx Scout and Britain’s Scout figures (repaired).

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Huzzah from the Boy Scouts!

Blog posted by Mark, Man Of TIN on the 4th Of July 2022.

Scouting Wide Games in art and on postcards and as RPGs – links

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Scouting Wide Games in Art, on Postcards and in Role Playing Games

Happy Father’s Day to all!

My late Dad was an (Assistant) Scoutmaster for many years, who enjoyed Wide Games as a wartime child and as a Boy Scout, so I think he would appreciate this post.

Here below are a collection of links to some of my recent posts on interesting scouting paintings and postcard images, along with RPG elements, which have provided me with inspiration for gaming scenarios for my Scouting Wide Games for the Tabletop Project.

The Scouting Wide Games for the Tabletop Project started out in 2019 as a simple page and posts on this Man of TIN blog but has since grown to become an entirely separate blog.

Here for Man Of TIN blog (and Man of TIN Blog Two) readers are these links as a quick update on this ongoing tabletop gaming project.

Postcards

I own so far only a couple of these curious silent film type Davidson Brothers postcards (above) and have found more images online. I hope to acquire some more affordable examples over time:

https://tabletopscoutingwidegames.wordpress.com/2022/06/17/scouting-on-postcards-the-davidson-brothers-boy-scout-series/

The Wide Game and Scouts in Paintings

I have also enjoyed finding some fantastic scouting paintings such as ‘The Wide Game‘ by George Hillyard Swinstead from the Scouts Heritage Service online via Art UK:

https://tabletopscoutingwidegames.wordpress.com/2022/06/05/the-good-turn-by-george-hillyard-swinstead-1916-scout-painting-and-first-aid-scenario-photos/

https://tabletopscoutingwidegames.wordpress.com/2022/06/05/the-wide-game-painting-by-george-hillyard-swinstead-scout-heritage-service-art-uk/

There is an interesting detail of a wounded Tommy in his Hospital Blues in ‘The Good Turn’ painting by Swinstead, painted in 1916.

Scouting Photographs

These staged photographs and paintings capture a little of the outdoor spirit Wide Games from my original scouting photo snaps collection:

https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2020/02/17/ww1-boy-scout-photographs-in-my-collection-1/

https://tabletopscoutingwidegames.wordpress.com/2020/02/20/more-early-scouting-photos-from-ww1/

All good inspiration for my Scouting Wide Games for the Tabletop Project.

Role Playing Game Characters and Badge Skills

With the help of Alan (Duchy Of Tradgardland) Gruber, I am thinking through how to add a Role Playing Game RPG / NPC elements of character ability (and badge skills) to the simple Wide Games and snowball fight rules.

My D&D / Stranger Things related blog post introduces this topic:

https://tabletopscoutingwidegames.wordpress.com/2022/06/13/scouting-wide-games-rpgs-dungeons-and-dragons-and-stranger-things/

It could be The Shire, the Upside Down or a D&D scenario map? Your local woods transformed with The Cloak of Romance and a suitable Wide Games gaming scenario and imagination …

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Scouting Wide Games – for Girls?

Along with uniform research for figure conversions on early Scout uniform and that of other youth movements such as Camp Fire Girls USA and British Camp Fire Girls, each having their own page on the blog.

Figure conversions from 42mm range of STS Little Britons Spencer Smith Miniatures LBB30 Boy Scouts to African-American Camp Fire Girls USA – work in progress

There – that brings us up to date with the ongoing Scouting Wide Games for the Tabletop Project. This also fits my DMZ Demilitarised gaming mood.

Blog posted on 18/ 19 June (Happy Father’s Day!) by Mark Man of TIN, 1970s British Cub Scout (Bronze Arrow, retired).

Camp Fire Girls USA on the Painting Table

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Ready for gloss spray varnish, the finishing touch to my Camp Fire Girls USA figures:

It’s been a busy month both at work and preparing a local history talk in the evenings, so these Camp Fire Girls figures got stuck on the painting table in their tissue paper bloomers for a few weeks! Sorry, Girls!

The original STS Shiny Toy Soldiers 42mm Little Britons Range LBB30 Boy Scout figure (a stout little chap!) can be seen on the left.

Finally after more research into uniforms for African American Camp Fire Girls, out came the paint brushes for some prototype figure painting in gloss shiny toy soldier (pink face dot) style.

I have chosen variations on the patriotic ‘Minute Girls‘ WW1 era red, white and blue Camp Fire / YWCA uniform that lasted through to the 1960s.

You can read and see more about all this at my Scouting Wide Games for the Tabletop blog post:

https://tabletopscoutingwidegames.wordpress.com/2022/05/30/camp-fire-girls-usa-on-the-painting-table/

Not everything worked, I have learnt a few lessons about history, painting skin tones in gloss toy soldier style (no pink face dot!) and also some further ideas for refining or diversifying my figure conversions for making up the rest of each eight girl team or patrol of African American and a patrol or two of White American / Latin American Mexican patrols.

British Camp Fire Girls (in brown) to follow.

https://tabletopscoutingwidegames.wordpress.com/2022/05/30/camp-fire-girls-usa-on-the-painting-table/

African American YWCA Girl Reserves (NYPL)

This month I have been reading South Side Girls by Marcia Chatelain and listening to Chicago South Side Girl and former FLOTUS Michelle Obama’s autobiography Becoming. https://tabletopscoutingwidegames.wordpress.com/2022/05/08/radical-brownies-monarchs-and-black-camp-fire-girls-usa/

Blog crossposted from https://tabletopscoutingwidegames.wordpress.com by Mark Man Of TIN, 1970s British Cub Scout (Bronze Arrow, retired) on 31 May 2022